Carlin set to replace Dennis after Pau F3 round

Dennis, whose main programme this season is in the Blancpain GT Series with the WRT Audi team, took second in last weekend’s opening race at Silverstone and helped propel Carlin into an early teams’ championship lead.

Team boss Trevor Carlin told Motorsport.com that Dennis will remain on board for next week’s Monza round and the May event at Pau, where the Briton won twice with Prema in 2015.

“The first three rounds is the plan,” said Carlin. “He’s a stabilising influence really – you’ve got someone who’s been there and done it, and if there’s a massive problem Jake will be able to tell us straight away.

“I don’t want to jinx anything, but the fact that we were strong in Pau last year [Alessio Lorandi won there for Carlin] and Jake is the master of Pau, we’d like to think we’ll be in with a great chance.”

Carlin added that from the June Hungaroring round onwards he would like to run a new driver alongside season-long team members Lando Norris, Jehan Daruvala and Ferdinand Habsburg.

He said this could be someone racing in F3 only or a driver looking to add an extra programme to an existing race schedule.

Fourth Motopark seat still vacant

Motopark chief Timo Rumpfkeil says his team is unlikely to fill its fourth and final seat before the end-of-season Euro F3 rounds.

Taking a swipe at the teams that have big investors behind them and have offered heavily discounted drives, Rumpfkeil told Motorsport.com: “My business case is a very romantic one: the drivers pay some bills and go racing – I think I’m the last one in the paddock [to do that].”

Motopark lead driver Joel Eriksson leads the championship after the opening round by 12 points from Prema's Callum Ilott, having taken victory in the second Silverstone race.